NovAtel Announces New SPAN MEMS Enclosed Receiver

At the Intergeo conference in Hannover, Germany, today, NovAtel Inc. announced the addition of a new commercially exportable single-enclosure SPAN MEMS receiver to its line of SPAN GNSS/INS products.

Available in the first quarter of 2013, the low-power, lightweight SPAN MEMS enclosure incorporates a diminutive micro-electromechanical-system (MEMS) inertial measurement unit (IMU) and a NovAtel high-precision OEM615 GNSS/INS SPAN receiver to provide continuously available position, velocity and attitude (roll, pitch and yaw) in a small, single-unit form factor.

Jason Hamilton, NovAtel’s marketing director, says, “By integrating this IMU with our powerful OEM6 GNSS/INS SPAN engine, which provides many advanced positioning options such as AdVance RTK, ALIGN heading technology and RAIM, we are able to offer a GNSS/INS solution for a wide range of applications.”

Measuring 152 x 137 x 50.5 millimeters and weighing 640 grams, the SPAN MEMS enclosure provides a rugged housing for demanding applications. A total of five serial and USB communication interfaces plus several I/O options support additional peripherals. An embedded wheel sensor interface is also available to enhance GNSS outage-bridging capabilities.

Tight coupling of the GNSS (dual-frequency) GPS/GLONASS/SBAS/QZSS) and inertial technologies is designed to enable continuous, robust positioning in difficult environments where satellite signals are unreliable or unavailable for short periods of time.

This product will be available as an integrated single-enclosure SPAN solution, enclosed standalone IMU for use with external SPAN-enabled receivers, and as an OEM component.

Shipments of the new receiver start Q1 2013 with OEM availability Q4 2012. A limited supply of enclosure evaluation units will be available in Q4 for integrators looking to get a head start on their projects.